1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting head which includes a plurality of unit heads that eject a liquid through nozzles and a liquid ejecting apparatus having the same.
2. Related Art
Liquid ejecting apparatuses are devices which include a liquid ejecting head that allows a liquid to be ejected as liquid droplets through nozzles and are configured to eject a variety of liquids from the liquid ejecting head. Typical examples of liquid ejecting apparatuses include image recording apparatuses, including ink jet recording apparatuses (or printers), which include an ink jet recording head (hereinafter, referred to as a recording head) which perform recording by ejecting ink in the form of liquid as ink droplets through nozzles of the recording head. The liquid ejecting apparatuses are also used to eject a variety of liquids such as a color material used for color filters of liquid crystal displays, an organic material used for organic electro luminescence (EL) displays, and an electrode material used for making electrodes. The recording head for image recording apparatuses ejects ink in the form of liquid. Further, a color material ejection head for display manufacturing apparatuses ejects solution of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color materials. Moreover, an electrode material ejection head for electrode manufacturing apparatuses ejects an electrode material in the form of liquid, and a bio-organic material ejection head for chip manufacturing apparatuses ejects a bio-organic solution.
JP-A-2006-150593 discloses a printer which includes a recording head that includes a plurality of head units (line heads) in which a plurality of unit heads that eject ink are arranged in line, and the head units are arranged side by side on a fixation member such as a frame. The unit heads are configured to introduce ink from ink supply sources such as ink cartridges into pressure chambers (pressure generating chambers), generate a pressure change of the ink in the pressure chambers by actuating a pressure generating section such as a piezoelectric element and a heat generating element, and cause ink in the pressure chambers to be ejected as ink droplets through openings on a nozzle surface by using the pressure change. The recording head further includes a plurality of controllers which correspond to the head units and transmit control signals to the pressure generating section.
In recent years, the head units have become increasingly compact while the controllers have become larger relative to the head units. When the head units are arranged side by side on the frame and the controllers which correspond to the head units are arranged side by side along the arranged head units on the frame, the entire length of the controllers in the arrangement direction is larger than the entire length of the head units in the arrangement direction. As a consequence, it has been difficult to reduce the size of the recording heads. A configuration has been possible in which a recording head is mounted on a housing of the printer or the like without the associated controllers. However, this configuration is not practical since this needs a complicated layout of cables that electrically connect the respective head units to their associated controllers.